Yu (Joy) Zhao

 

 

 

 

 

 

136-93 Caltech
Moore Laboratory
Pasadena, CA 91125
U.S.A.

E-mail: yzhao@caltech.edu
Phone: (626) 429-6862
Fax: (626) 584-9104

Office: Moore 47

 

 

 

 

 

Education

Ph.D. in Microelectromechanical System (MEMS)
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA                       August, 2009 – present

M.S. in Electrical Engineering
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA                   September, 2008 – July, 2009

B.S. in Microelectronics
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA                    September, 2004 – July, 2008

Research Experience
 
Caltech Micromachining Laboratory, Pasadena, USA
       Advisor: Yu-Chong Tai                                                                        August, 2009 – present

  1. Retinal Prostheses Project
    Develop a MEMS intraocular origami RF coil and a 3-coil based inductive resonant coupling scheme for wireless power transfer in retinal prostheses

  2. Zebra fish Wireless ECG Recording Project
    Develop a wireless percutaneous implant for long-term zebra fish epicardial ECG recording to functionally study the heart regeneration

  3. Intraocular Pressure Sensor Project
    Develop a fully-intraocular implantable pressure sensor combining wireless telemetric technology for the early-stage Glaucoma detection

  4. Impedance Sensor Project
    Collaborated with Cardiovascular Laboratory, Department of biomedical engineering, USC
    Develop a catheter-based impedance sensor with expandable balloon to characterize inflammatory  
    atherosclerotic plaques

  5. Jelly Fish Pacemaker Stimulator Project
    Collaborated with Biological Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech
    Develop a microstimulator interfacing with jellyfish pacemakers to control the swimming and maneuvering

National Key Laboratory of Micro/Nano Fabrication Technology      
       Advisors: Wei Wang and Zhihong Li                                         July, 2007 – June, 2008

  1. Studies on Nanoparticle-based Nanofabrication
    Develop the processes to patterning monolayer nanoparticle with Microfluidic channel, use nanoparticle as depositing and etching mask to make Nanofilter

 

Publications (*co-first authors)

Zebra fish Wireless ECG Recording Project

  1. Z. Yu, et al., “A Wearable percutaneous implant for long term zebrafish epicardial ECG recording,” in Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference (TRANSDUCERS), 2013 17th International, 2013, oral presentation.
  2. C. Hung*, Y. Fei*, Z. Yu*, et al, “An implantable MEA to elucidate heart regeneration in zebra fish,” The Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting, Sep 2013.
  3. Y. Fei, Z. Yu, et al., "Flexible microelectrode arrays to interface epicardial electrical signals with intracardial calcium transients in zebrafish hearts," Biomedical Microdevices, vol. 14, pp. 357-366, 2012.

Wireless Power Transfer to Retinal Prostheses

  1. Z. Yu, et al., "High performance 3-coil wireless power transfer system for the 512-electrode epiretinal prosthesis," in Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2012 Annual International Conference of the IEEE, 2012, pp. 6583-6586
  2. Z. Yu, et al., "Reduction of AC resistance in MEMS intraocular foil coils using microfabricated planar Litz structure," in Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems (NEMS), 2012 7th IEEE International Conference on, 2012, pp. 234-237.
  3. Z. Yu, et al., "A MEMS intraocular origami coil," in Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference (TRANSDUCERS), 2011 16th International, 2011, pp. 2172-2175.
  4. Z. Yu, et al., “An optimal power coil configuration to minimize surgical incision for intraocular retinal prostheses, ” in The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), 2013 annual meeting, 2013
  5. C. Han-Chieh, L. Yang, K. Dongyang, Z. Yu, et al., "Packaging study for a 512-channel intraocular epiretinal implant," in Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 2013 IEEE 26th International Conference on, 2013, pp. 1045-1048.
  6. M. Monge, M. Raj, M. Honarvar-Nazari, C. Han-Chieh, Z. Yu, et al., "A fully intraocular 0.0169mm2/pixel 512-channel self-calibrating epiretinal prosthesis in 65nm CMOS," in Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers (ISSCC), 2013 IEEE International, 2013, pp. 296-297.

Intraocular Pressure Sensor

  1. L. Jeffrey, Z. Yu, et al., "High quality factor parylene-based intraocular pressure sensor," in Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems (NEMS), 2012 7th IEEE International Conference on, 2012, pp. 137-140, Presented by Z. Yu, Best Student Paper.
  2. L. Jeffrey, Z. Yu, et al., "Feeling the Pressure: A Parylene-Based Intraocular Pressure Sensor," Nanotechnology Magazine, IEEE, vol. 6, pp. 8-16, 2012.

Nanoparticle-based microfabrication

  1. Z. Yu, et al., "Microfluidic patterning of close-packed nanoparticle monolayer," in Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems, 2008. NEMS 2008. 3rd IEEE International Conference on, 2008, pp. 622-625.
  2. Z. Chen, Z. Yu, et al., "Microfluidic patterning of nanoparticle monolayers," Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, vol. 7, pp. 585-591, 2009.
  3. W. Wang, Z. Yu, et al., "Nanoparticle-based lift-off technique for ultra-thin nanoporous film preparation," Science in China Series F: Information Sciences, vol. 51, pp. 819-824, 2008

Manuscripts in Preparation (*co-first authors)

  1. C. Hung*, Y. Fei*, Z. Yu* , et al., “Flexible and implantable microelectrodes to assess electrical phenotypes of small animal heart regeneration,” submitted to Nature Communication, 2013
  2. Z. Yu, Y. Fei, et al., “An catheter-based concentric impedance sensor with an expandable balloon to characterize inflammatory atherosclerotic plaques, ”

Outreach

  1. “Dr Algae”, a low-cost bio-based system for rapid testing the quality of drink water developed by my friends and I in spare time, to serve our communities with quality of drinking water in less-developed areas
  2. A website that provides an overview of my research empowering the retinal prosthetic devices, aimed at a general audience such as scientists in other fields, graduate and undergraduate students, and even smart high school kids.
    http://ocupower.net
  3. An NGO named Travolunteer aiming at helping the education of the migrant children in China.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErLd0D4NgLE
  4. Volunteer, Chancellor Place of Pasadena Retirement Homes
  5. Executive committee member of Peking University Alumni Association of Southern California (PUAASC)
  6. Vice president of Caltech Chinese Student Association (Caltech C), 2009

Awards and Recognition

  1. Caltech Rising Research Symposium, 2nd place, 2011
  2. IEEE Presidents’ Change the World Competition; IEEE Distinguished Student Humanitarian Prize;  2010
  3. Caltech Atwood Fellowship, 2008
  4. Top Ten Excellent Graduation Thesis in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department of Peking University; Jun, 2008
  5. Beijing Outstanding Graduates; Jun, 2008
  6. The National Contest for MEMS accelerometer Application; The First Prize; Sep, 2007
  7. The 9th American Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM); The Second Prize, Mar, 2007
  8. The 22th Undergraduate National physics Olympia Competition; The Third Prize, Dec, 2005
  9. First Prize of National Mathematics Olympiad and Physics Olympiad (senior high school), 2003

Supervised student

  1. Caltech Undergraduate student, Debbie Yu  July, 2011- Present